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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s richest countries in
terms of natural wealth, yet among the poorest in terms of GDP. Forests blanket
60% of the country.

Following decades of mismanagement and two civil wars, the DRC is taking steps to
promote sustainable forest management. In 2005, with World Bank financing, the
government launched a process to review and convert old logging titles into forest
concessions aligned with the country’s new forest code.

Pierre Methot directed WRI's forestry work in Central Africa in 2009. He explains WRI’s role,
“Acting as the international independent observer, alongside our Belgian partner
AGRECO, we designed the review methodology, provided technical support, and
ensured compliance with the law. We insisted the process and results be made
publicly available and that local and indigenous populations be involved.”

Of 156 logging titles reviewed, only 65 were deemed legal for new concessions.
The remaining titles – 12 million hectares of rainforest – were set for cancellation.

“Protecting hectares is important,” says Methot, “but more importantly, this process
was transparent and involved multiple stakeholders – a first for the DRC. It sets the
groundwork for an accountable approach to forest and natural resource management.”

Forest loss and degradation are major contributors to global GHG emissions. Yet, the
issue has not played a significant role in international efforts to combat climate change.

This is changing, explains Smita Nakhooda, a senior associate in WRI’s Institutions
and Governance Program. “Several large-scale multinational initiatives have
emerged to help developing countries reduce emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation. REDD is the shorthand for this objective, which will likely be
part of any new global climate change agreement.”

Improving forest governance – the rules and practices that determine how decisions
about forest resources are made – will be critical to the success of REDD efforts.
How will governments balance the need to maintain forest cover and the need for
other land uses? How will they ensure that the rights of forest dependent
communities and indigenous peoples are respected?

WRI’s timely and sound analysis on forest governance has been pivotal in shaping
new REDD initiatives at the UN and World Bank. “The battle against climate
change cannot be won without protecting the world’s forests, and the communities
that depend on them for their livelihoods,” says Nakhooda. “WRI is committed to
ensuring REDD programs are as robust as possible.”

Fires are flaring up once more on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Media reports in the region indicate that the resulting smog has already reached unhealthy levels over parts of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Brazil’s economy has been booming. During the past decade, it grew from the ninth to the sixth-largest in the world. While this growth has brought many socioeconomic benefits, it’s come with a downside: significant environmental impacts. Brazil has the highest rate of deforestation worldwide, while pollution threatens the country’s drinking water supply. Despite a decrease in national greenhouse gas emissions of late, agriculture emissions and energy demand are still rising.

Following record-breaking air pollution across Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, ministers from five Southeast Asian countries will meet in Kuala Lumpur this week for urgent talks on combating the haze.

New analysis of the patterns and causes of the fires in Sumatra that caused the haze highlights serious issues at the kickoff of this 15th meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

1. First, pulpwood and oil palm concessions have a more significant role in the fires that we earlier thought.

WRI’s analysis shows that that the number of fire alerts per hectare, in other words their density, is three to four times higher within pulpwood and oil palm concession boundaries than outside those boundaries.

Singapore can help Indonesia untangle complex ownership structure of companies to figure out who’s legally responsible if crimes have been committed.

As Malaysia declares a state of emergency with over 200 schools closing, and residents of Indonesia and Singapore continue to suffer from the choking haze, it's time to move beyond the blame game of claims and counter claims. Instead, we need to look at the facts, learn quickly from the data, and ensure political leaders, companies and communities take appropriate action to prevent this crisis from recurring.

Spanning six nations and 500 million acres of land in Central Africa, the Congo Basin contains the second largest contiguous tropical rainforest in the world and is home to a wealth of biodiversity and wildlife. More than 75 million people rely on it for food, fresh water, and shelter. Global demand for the region’s forest and mineral resources is high and growing.

Nowhere is the pressure more intense than in Gabon, a nation with 80 percent of its territory covered by dense tropical forest. With resource use demands spiraling in recent years, Gabon urgently needs better forest management planning if the government is to achieve its goal of becoming an emerging economy while preserving the country’s natural resources.

WRI’s forestry team has been working in Central Africa since 2002 to help nations collect and publish accessible information on forest concessions, logging infrastructure, and protected areas, thus improving transparency and governance in the forest sector.

With assistance from WRI and World Wildlife Fund, Gabon is improving transparency and access to natural resource information by combining forestry, mining, and conservation land use data into a single, public, information atlas. Recognizing the need for vastly improved coordination between various land allocation ministries, as well as the importance of reliable, high quality information for decision-making, the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum, and Hydrocarbons led the initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Forests. As a result, Gabon can begin to tackle conflicting land use claims and plan for comprehensive and coordinated land use allocation at the national level. In addition, industry and the public, armed with information, can participate more actively in decision-making and monitoring activities.

This multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral, and transparent approach is setting the foundation for improved land use and management in Gabon.